Poetry is a Gift

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 95

    We are so thrilled with the way our Spring Poetry Unit turned out this year!  We are extremely thankful to Champions for Learning and Mr. and Mrs. Carlsen for making our grant wishes come true.  This year was even more magical because we combined the publishing of the book as Mother's Day gifts with our poetry cafe.  

    The students took their writing through the writing process beginning with learning about different types of poetry all the way through publishing their original poems into a hardbound book for their mom's as a gift. Our free and reduced lunch population hovers around 75% so this gave the students that otherwise couldn't afford a gift something to give their mom's that they will cherish for years to come.  After publishing and wrapping their books, we practiced reading their poetry aloud.  We worked on volume, pace, and eye contact.  We also worked on introducing ourselves and thanking our audience.  This helped prepare our kids to be comfortable with public speaking.  As teachers we were so amazed at the level of their speaking skills and the confidence that they showed.  Even our two students with speech difficulties stood up with confidence and read their poems aloud.  The project targeted reading and writing standards, as well as, listening and speaking standards. 

     The morning of the poetry cafe was amazing!  We had a packed house with great attendance from parents and grandparents.  We received wonderful feedback from both the students and parents.  We are so excited with the event this year and hope we can continue to build on it for next year.